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SYMPATHY, 


ITS  FOUNDATION  AND  LEGITIMATE  EXERCISE 


CONSIDERED, 


IN   SPECIAL   RELATION   TO   AFRICA: 


A   ^Zgg®WlS£!l 


DELIVERED    ON   THE 


FOURTH    OF    JULY    1828, 


SIXTH  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA. 


BY    JOHN    H.  KENNEDY. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRTMF.T)  BY  W.  F.  OEDDES,  WO.  59  LOCUST  STHKET. 


In  conformity  with  the  request  of  the  Pennsylvania  Colonization 
Society,  the  collection  in  aid  of  the  American  Colonization  Society, 
was  taken  on  the  Sabbath  preceding  the  Fourth  of  July:  that  taken 
on  the  4th  was  appropriated  to  Prince  Abduhl  Rahahman.  The 
Reader  is  requested  to  get  what  good  he  can  from  the  sermon,  and 
is  at  liberty  to  ascribe  its  publication  to  such  motives  as  charity  dic- 
tates. 


SYMPATHY. 

"Is  It  nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that  pass  by  ?— Lam.  i.  12." 
The  book  of  Lamentations  was  written  during  the  Babylonish  Cap- 
tivity. The  Holy  City  M'as  at  that  time  desolate,  the  land  of  Judea 
was  a  waste.  In  the  test,  Zion  is  personified:  She  speaks,  she  be- 
\vails,  she  appeals  to  the  sympathy  of  the  beholder.  "  Is  it  nothing 
to  you  all  ye  that  pass  by. " 

This  language  is  frequently  put  in  the  lips  of  the  "man  of  sorrows." 
The  accommodation  is  a  proper  one;  For  never  were  claims  and  sympa- 
thy equally  strong,  and  never  were  sufterings  to  be  compared  with 
those  which  He  endured  for  our  sake.  But  the  feelings  expressed  are 
common  to  sufferers.  The  language  is  natural,  "  Is  it  nothing  to 
you  all  y6  that  pass  by?"  The  words  are  to  be  understood  not  as  an 
interrogation  but  as  an  affirmation,  "You  M'ho  behold  them  cannot 
Certainly  be  indifferent  to  the  sufferings  I  endure!'^  It  is  but  the 
application  to  oUr  own  sorrows  of  the  general  principle.  There  is  an 
obligation  on  all  persons  to  sympathise  with  those  who  suffer^  and  to 
give  suitable  expression  to  their  sympathy.    This  obligation  results 

1.  From  the  principle  of  Benevolence.  We  ought  to  feel  kindly 
and  to  act  kindly  towards  others,  to  sympathise  with  the  sufferer  and 
to  lighten  if  may  be  his  burden;  and  we  neither  have  nor  need  a 
better  reason  for  it,  than  that  it  is  right.  To  prove  it  we  need  not  and 
cannot.  It  is  an  axiom  in  morals j  a  principle  to  be  felt  and  acted 
on,  not  argUed  about.  The  obligation  exists  antecedently  to  and  in- 
dependently of  any  connexion  or  community  of  interest  we  may  have 
with  the  sufferer. 

2.  This  obligation  results.  From  the  community  of  interest  subsist- 
ing between  all  the  members  of  the  human  family.  There  is  not  only 
the  material  body  of  the  Naturalist,  and  the  Body  Politic  of  the  States- 
man, but  there  is  an  ampier  Body  which  includes  every  member  of  the 
human  family.  When  a  member  of  any  body  suffers  the  other  mem- 
bers suff'er  with  it.  In  some  instances  adjoining  members  are  appa- 
rently gainers  by  the  sufferings  and  contusions  of  other  members:  But 
the  gain  is  only  apparent,  the  member  enlarged  is  only  swollen,  the 
loss  is  real,  the  strength  is  lessened.  Between  the  members  of  the  hu- 
man family  the  connection  is  not  so  intimate  as  between  those  of  the 
human  body;  still  it  is  real.  Every  man  is  a  loser  in  the  losses  of 
every  other  man.  In  this  case,  as  in  the  other,  there  is  not  unfre- 
quently  an  apparent  gain.  The  man  who  enslaves  another,  who  makes 
the  sweat  and  blood  of  another  minister  to  his  personal  aggrandise- 
ment, acf:ounts  himself  a  gainer.     But  the  gain  is  apparent,  the  loss 


is  real.  For  if  we  admit,  that  he  is  a  gainer  in  a  pecuniary  point  of 
view  (and  even  this  is  not  true  except  in  peculiarly  favorable  circum- 
stances,)the  loss  sustained  elsewhere  may  more  than  counterbalance  his 
gain.  Peace  spreads  her  pinions  for  flight.  No  longer  can  he  eat  his 
bread  in  quietness.  Idleness  grows  on  him,  and  pride,  ignorance,  re- 
sentfulness,  profligacy,  and  cruelty  are  in  the  train.  It  is  difficult  to 
say,  whether  the  master  or  the  slave  be  the  greater  loser  by  tliis  unna- 
tural state  of  things.  If  our  ample  survey  extend  to  the  illimitable 
future  we  will  be  constrained  to  exclaim  with  our  gentle  Poet — 

"  Dear  to  me  as  Freedom  is. 
And  in  my  heart's  just  estimation  prized, 
Above  all  price,  I'd  rather  be  myself  the  slave 
And  wear  the  chains,  tlian  fasten  them  on  him." 

The  general  principle,  That  all  are  obligated  to  sympathise  with 
those  who  suffer,  admits  this  moditication,  Special  cases  create  special 
obligaiions.  They  who  are  exempt  from  the  ills  deplored  and  whose 
location  enables  them  to  extend  a  helping  hand  without  difficulty,  are 
under  stronger  than  ordinary  obligations.  The  moral  world  like  the 
natural  will  be  most  thoroughly  cultivated,  when  the  field  under  each 
one's  vision  is  the  object  of  special  though  not  exclusive  attention. 
To  this  modification  of  the  general  principle  there  is  evident  allusion 
in  the  text.  The  sufferer  addresses  her  plaint  to  those  who  "  pass 
by"  to  those  who  arc  in  the  vicinity,  the  witnesses  of  her  sufferings. 

Let  us  now  apply  the  general  principle  to  a  particular  case,  that  of 
The  People  of  Colour.  Of  this  class  of  persons  there  are  nearly  three 
millions  within  the  limits  of  these  United  States.  About  three  hun- 
dred thousand  of  them  have  a  partial  and  nominal  Freedom:  Partial, 
in  as  much  as  the  most  of  them  enjoy  but  a  portion  of  the  rights  of 
Freemen;  and  nominal,  because  prejudices  and  circumstances  present 
insuperable  obstacles  even  where  no  legal  disabilities  exist.  The  re- 
mainder of  this  population  exceeding  two  and  a  half  millions  in  num- 
ber is  held  in  slavery  more  or  less  abject  in  proportion  to  their  num- 
bers within  any  given  limits.  Is  the  African  in  our  land  a  sufferer? 
The  fact  is  questioned.  Our  "Declaration  of  Independence"  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding,  some  aver,  that  slaves  arc  more  happy 
than  Freemen!  would  that  the  consolations  they  so  highly  prise  were 
allotted  them!  The  implement  suited  to  convince  them  is  that  whicli 
the  wise  man  alludes  Prov.  26,  3. 

The  language  in  an  after  part  of  our  text  seems  peculiarly  appropriate 
in  the  lips  of  the  African;  "Behold  and  see,  if  there  be  any  sorrow 
like  unto  my  sorrow."  It  may  be  questioned,  whether  for  an  equal 
length  of  time  any  people  have  experienced  as  severe  sufferings.     The 


Clime  however  of  introducing  slavery  lies  elsewhere  than  at  our  door. 
Our  Legislatures  solemnly  protested  against  it.  Tlie  JJriilah  Lion 
from  whose  paw  God  in  mercy  has  rescued  us,  threw  the  helpless  and 
mangled  African  on  our  shores;  and  we  merit  no  further  blame  than  as 
we  may  evince  a  desire  to  perpetuate  the  evil. 

In  regard  to  a.well  regulated  system  of  slavery  which  some  contend 
for,  we  are  about  as  sanguine  as  in  regard  to  a  well  regulated  Theatre, 
It  is  a  "  rara  avis,"  a  brood  extinct,  rather  tliat  lias  never  existed  ex- 
cept in  fancy — a  thing  that  "might  be,"  or  that  "ought to  be!"  The 
one  to  be  popular  must  adapt  itself  to  taste,  in  other  words,  must 
minister  to  vice;  slavery  to  be  lucrative  must  be  "  well  regulated,"  i.e. 
for  degrading  its  victims.  The  spark  of  intellect  in  the  slave  must  be 
smothered,  all  sense  of  justice  and  of  Personal  rights  extinguished;  if 
he  be  a  man  he  is  not  fit  for  a  slave!  But  let "  slavery  disguise  itself 
as  it  will,"  let  there  be  evei-y  alleviation  possible  in  the  nature  of  the 
case;  let  his  lot  be  cast  with  a  master  heedful  of  his  temporal  and  spiri- 
tual welfare,  still  these  are  but  alleviations.  He  is  yet  a  slave,  depriv- 
ed of  Heaven's  noblest  earthly  blessing.  Nor  can  there  be  any  gua- 
rantee of  the  continuance  of  his  present  comforts.  His  "dawn"  may 
be  speedily  "overcast;"  his  new  master  may  "neither  fear  God  nor 
regard  man." 

"  Is  it  nothing  to  us"  that  more  than  two  millions  amoiis  us  are  in  a 
state  of  slavery?  Yes  my  Christian  hearers,  they  have  claims  on  us. 

As  men,  They  are  members  of  the  same  family,  sprung  from  the 
"  one  Blood."  "  It  matters  not  what  complexion  an  Indian  or  an  Afri- 
can sun  may  have  impressed  upon  them,"  they  are  men,  rational  and 
immortal  beings,  possessed  of  feelings  and  rights  and  hopes  and  souls. 
Shall  we  remain  unmoved  while  they  are  reckoned  up  as  the  beasts  of 
the  field,  and  the  principal  solicitude  in  regard  to  them  is.  How 
they  shall  best  minister  to  avarice  or  serve  as  a  prop  to  idleness.''  Must 
we  be  unconcerned  while  they  are  consigned  to  a  hopeless  servitude, 
entailed  on  children's  children,  until  the  Trump  of  God  shall  utter  its 
horrors?  They  are  our  Brethren  who  must  '•  soon  appear  with  us  before 
the  judgment  seat  of  Christ,"  and  if  the  evils  they  labor  under  admit 
of  a  remedy,  we  may  no  longer  be  unconcerned. 

As  Freemen  we  are  bound  to  sympathise  with  them.  We  have 
waded  through  blood  to  establish  the  principle.  That  "  all  men  arc 
by  nature  free  and  equal."  For  fifty  years  we  have  been  "sitting  un- 
der our  own  vine  and  under  our  own  fig-tree,"  and  arc  not  disposed  to 
admit  the  principle,  that  slavery  is  preferable  to  liberty.  If  told  tc 
"  mind  our  own  business,  (wv  answer  is.  That  to  dislike  and  to  oppose 
slavery  is  emphatically  the  business  of  Freemen. 

As  Americans  we  arc  s[)ctially  interested  in  the  circumstances  and 


sorrows  ot  the  slave.  We  are  the  persons  in  the  present  instance  whd 
"pass  bj,"  the  witnesses,  and  who  have  it  in  our  power  to  disburden 
ourselves  while  benefitting  them.  Our  Country  suft'ers,  and  as  lovers 
of  our  country  we  cannot  be  indifferent  to  what  affects  her  standing 
and  interests.  She  suffers  in  point  of  Character.  It  is  discreditable 
to  us  to  perpetuate  an  evil  which  we  v/ere  the  first  to  denounce.  Our 
country  suffers  in  point  of  strength.  A  slave  population  is  not  merely  a 
subtraction  from  our  resources,  but  is  inevitably  hostile  to  our  inte- 
rests, and  willing  on  any  emergency  to  attach  themselves  to  our 
enemies.  Force  and  craft  may  succeed  for  a  time  in  keeping  the  slave 
in  subjection.  He  may  be  shorn  of  his  locks  and  deprived  of  his  eyes; 
He  may  be  kept  back  from  power,  and  kept  away  from  instruction; 
But  in  time  he  Avill  gather  strength,  and  force  will  compensate  for  want 
of  knowledge.  Like  Samson  he  will  find,  though  it  be  even  by  feel- 
ing, the  pillars  of  Despotism,  and  will  pull  down  the  Temple  though 
himself  should  perish  in  its  ruins.  The  increase  of  a  slave  popula- 
tion must  greatly  exceed  that  of  the  Free.  In  our  Southern  States  the 
increase  is  at  least  as  two  to  one.  The  principal  reason  of  the  differ- 
ence is  this — The  respectability  and  wealth  of  the  master  depends  in 
a  great  measure  on  the  number  of  his  slaves;  consequently  he  has 
every  reason  to  defer  and  the  slave  every  inducement  to  hasten 
marriage.  The  consequence  will  be,  that  in  process  of  time  the 
slaves  must  gain  the  ascendency.  The  scenes  of  St.  Domingo  will  be 
acted  over  in  our  land;  the  entire  Southern  section  of  our  country 
will  be  an  Aceldama.  Our  country  suffers  in  point  of  morals. 
Industry,  economy,  temperance,  forbearance,  in  a  word  the  entire  ele- 
ments of  moral  and  republican  being  and  of  true  national  glory,  never 
have  flourished,  nor  can,  to  any  great  extent  where  slavery  prevails. 
It  is  a  worm  at  the  root  of  our  national  Tree  which  must  materially 
retard  if  not  wholly  destroy  its  vigor.  "  The  whole  commerce  be- 
tween the  master  and  the  slave  is  a  perpetual  exercise  of  the  most 
boisterous  passions  the  most  unremitting  despotism  on  the  one  part, 
and  degrading  submissions  on  the  other*  *  *  *  *  *.  The  parent  storms, 
the  child  looks  on,  catches  the  lineaments  of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same 
airs  in  the  circle  of  smaller  slaves,  gives  a  loose  to  the  worst  of  pas- 
sions, and  thus  nursed,  educated  and  daily  exercised  in  tyranny  cannot 
but  be  stamped  by  it  with  odious  peculiarities.  The  man  must  be  a 
prodigy  who  can  retain  his  manners  and  morals  undepraved  by  such 
circumstances.  And  with  what  execration  should  the  Statesman  be 
loaded,  who  permitting  one  half  the  citizens  thus  to  trample  on  the 
rights  of  the  other,  transforms  those  into  despots  and  these  into  ene- 
mies, destroys  the  morals  of  the  one  part  and  the  anior  patrise  of  the 
other.     For  if  a  slave  can  have  a  country  in  this  world,  it    must  be 


any  other  In  preference  to  tliat  in  which  he  is  born  to  live  and  labor  for 
another;  in  which  he  must  lock  up  the  faculties  of  his  nature,  contri- 
bute as  far  as  depends  on  his  individual  endeavors  to  the  evanishment 
of  the  human  race,  or  entail  his  own  miserable  condition  on  the  endless 
generations  proceeding  from  him."  Jefferson's  notes  on  Virginia,  Query 
18th.  The  chapter  is  brief  and  highly  eloquent. 

2.  Having  investigated  to  some  extent  the  evil  deplored,  we  now 
proceed  to  the  Remedy  to  be  applied.  Whatever  is  attempted  towards 
the  removal  of  this  evil  must  operate  gradually.  The  Body  Politic  like 
the  animal  economy  adapts  itself  to  habits  however  ruinous  in  their  ulti- 
mate tendency;  and  an  entire  instantaneous  abandonment  of  such  ha- 
bits subjects  it  to  serious  inconvenience.  Where  moral  principle  is 
not  sacrificed,  the  wiser  course  is  progressive  amelioration  and  pros- 
pective abandonment.  Where  the  marsh  has  been  of  long  standing, 
its  contents  must  be  drained  not  disgorged,  and  the  soil  must  be  culti- 
vated as  the  waters  recede;  The  evils  of  slavery  as  we  have  seen  are 
great;  But  both  the   slave  population    and  the  Free   have  been  too 

long  accustomed  to  it,  to  profit  by  immediate  universal  emancipation. 

What  is  attempted  must  also  operate  harmoniously.  We  must  have 
the  consent  if  possible,  and  must  pay  due  regard  to  the  interests  of  the 
master  himself.  The  object  to  be  aimed  at,  is  not  to  establish  the  rights 
of  the  slave  in  the  abstract,  but  to  secure  to  him  the  exercise  of  those 
rights;  and  in  our  government  this  cannot  be  effected  but  with  the  con- 
sent|and  through  the  agency  of  the  master.  How  little  has  been  effect- 
ed by  the  other  modes  hitherto  attempted.  We  mean  not  intention- 
ally to  undervalue  the  services  of  the  Abolition  Society  in  the  cause  of 
emancipation.  Their  motives  are  pure  and  their  efforts  untiring;  But 
we  profess  ourselves  sceptical  as  to  the  benefits  to  emancipation 
resulting  from  their  labours.  One  has  perhaps  been  benefitted,  but  at 
the  expence  we  fear  of  twenty.  The  mind  of  the  master  at  the  South 
has  been  embittered,  the  cords  have  been  tightened,  the  chains  rivet- 
ted.  We  are  not  indeed  to  expect,  that  so  great  a  work  will  be  accom- 
plished without  difficulty  and  opposition:  But  the  opposition  in  the 
South  to  the  abolition  scheme  is  nearly  universal,  and  exists  on  the 
part  of  those  who  see  and  regret  and  desire  to  remedy  the  evils  of 
slavery.  Why  have  the  Abolitionists  been  so  unsuccessful?  Experience 
is  the  best  Teacher;  and  in  order  to  make  rapid  improvement,  we 
must  permit  her  to  comment  freely  though  kindly  on  past  mistakes. 
The  Abolitionists,  in  our  judgment,  have  not  impartially  surveyed  the 
entire  field  to  be  operated  on.  Their  operations  have  not  been  adapted 
to  existing  circumstances.  We  need  wisdom  as  well  as  valor.  Our 
arrows  must  not  strike  upon  the  thick  plate  of  the  harness,  but  between 
the  joints.     What  we  aim  at,  is  to  do  execution,  and  not  to  spear  our- 


selves  by  rushing  direct  upon  llie  set  pikes  of  our  opponents.  To  be 
plain,  it  is  better  surely  to  obtain  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves, 
than  to  have  much  wrath  and  no  fruit.  This  is  the  principal  assumed 
by  "  The  American  Society  for  colonizing  the  Free  people  of  Color." 
This  Society  has  always  disavowed  any  design  of  intermeddling  with 
slavery  directly  or  of  removing  the  slave  without  the  consent  of  the 
master.  Its  direct  object  is  "  the  removal  of  those  who  are  already 
Free,  or  who  may  be  hereafter  emancipated."  But  its  indirect,  though 
certain  and  happy  result  will  be  the  emancipation  of  the  slave.  This 
Society  has  been  in  existence  about  12  years.  It  has  auxiliaries  in  al- 
most every  State  in  the  Union :  and  I  now  invite  your  attention  to  a  sum- 
mary of  the  benefits  which  may  be  expected  to  result  from  its  opera- 
tions. 

1.  A  Christian  Colony  planted  on  its  shores  promises,  by  the  bless- 
ing of  Providence,  to  civilize  and  evangelize  Africa.  This  Colony 
now  in  the  8th  year  of  its  history  consists  of  about  1500  inhabitants. 
It  has  trebled  the  Colony  of  Virginia  though  fostered  by  Royal  bounty, 
and  has  already  effected  more  towards  the  overthrow  of  the  Slave-trade 
than  the  combined  Fleets  of  Great  Britain  and  America.  These  can 
operate  only  at  a  distance  and  by  force;  it  operates  on  the  spot,  and 
by  moral  suasion.  The  chiefs  of  the  surrounding  tribes  send  their  sons 
to  be  educated  in  the  Colony.  One  of  them  from  an  influential  Tribe 
is  now  in  this  country  under  the  care  of  the  Colonist*  who  occupies 
the  seat  behind  me.  The  Colony  also  operates  by  what  may  be 
called  commercial  suasion.  It  is  a  place  of  deposit  for  those  articles 
of  European  pi'oduce  needed  in  the  interior  of  Africa,  which  are  com- 
monly bartered  for  slaves.  These  it  furnishes  for  the  products  of 
Africa:  consequently  the  motives  the  natives  have  for  carrying  on  the 
Slave-Trade  can  no  longer  exist  where  the  influence  of  the  Colon}^ 
is  felt.  Already  this  infant  settlement  shelters  a  sea-coast  of  200  miles 
which  was  before  a  principal  mart  for  slaves.  Meanwhile  its  cara- 
vans will  carry  the  yet  richer  blessings  of  salvation:  many  will  run  to 
and  fro:  knowledge  will  be  increased;  Africa  will  be  civilized  and  gos- 
pclized:  The  Slave-Trade  will  be  extinguished;  God  our  Saviour  will 
be  glorified;  and  the  human  family  benefitted. 

2.  It  proposes  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  people  of  Color 
who  are  already  Free.  It  maybe  alleged,  that  this  class  of  persons 
have  the  entire  privileges  of  citizens.  In  this  Commonwealth  the  co- 
lored man  is  not  only  entitled  to  vote,  but  is  clegible  to  the  very  high- 
est post  of  honor  and  profit.  In  answer  to  this  we  ask  in  turn,  was 
ever  a  colored  man  actually  elected  to  any  post  of  profit  or  honor!  Or 
is  such  an  event  likely  to  occur  even  if  thousands  of  them  possessed 

*  Kcv,  John  Lewis,  no-\v  on  a  visit  to  this  couiHry 


the  requisite  qualifications!  Can  they  attain  even  to  mediocrity  of  re- 
spectability and  influence!  We  tarry  not  to  ascertain  why  this 
distinction  exists,  or  how  far  these  feelings  are  consistent  with  moral 
and  christian  principle:  we  merely  advert  to  the  fact.  Where  any  class 
of  society  find  themselves  excluded  from  an  equality  of  intercourse 
and  from  participating  in  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  society,  their 
ruin  is  almost  inevitable.  Their  strongest  earthly  stays  to  industry  and 
uprightness  of  demeanour  are  removed.  Our  Sabbath  Schools  and 
infant  schools  and  churches  may  do  much  to  rescue  thousands;  But 
the  mass  will  become  idle  and  vicious  in  despite  of  every  effort.  The 
colored  man  is  as  susceptible  of  improvement  as  the  white  if  he  be 
placed  under  equally  favorable  influences.  The  remedy  is,  that  he 
be  removed  from  those  moral  disabilities  he  is  now  subject  to.  The 
Colonization  Society  has  provided  an  asylum  on  the  North-western 
coast  of  Africa  where  he  may  enjoy  every  advantage.  The  territory 
18  ample  and  may  be  enlarged  to  almost  any  extent.  The  climate  is 
perfectly  congenial  with  the  African  constitution,  and  the  soil  in  the 
highest  degree  fertile.  The  results  surpass  the  expectations  of  the 
most  sanguine.  A  City  (Monrovia,  so  called  in  honor  of  the  Ex-presi- 
dent) is  laid  out,  and  lots  in  eligible  situations  are  already  valued  at 
S500.  Two  churches  are  erected,  public  buildings  of  various  sorts: 
The  children  of  the  Colony  are  all  day-scholars  and  most  of  them 
Sunday-scholars:  Labor  is  high,  commerce  thrives  at  an  almost  unex- 
ampled rate.  Many  of  the  colonists  are  already  wealthy,  i.  e.  possess- 
ed of  from  S5000  to  §10,000  each.  The  individual  now  present 
from  the  Colony  assures  me,  that  a  more  contented  and  happy  com- 
munity is  not  to  be  found.  The  benefit  which  would  result  to  «*,  bj 
the  removal  from  these  unfavorable  influences,  of  those  who  now 
immensely  augment  our  pauper  and  criminal  list,  is  a  consideration 
of  no  little  importance;  But  I  omit  it  for  the  present  as  too  selfish  in 
its  aspects  to  be  ranged  under  the  Head  of  Sympathy.  The  Society 
has  provided  the  asylum  and  affords  to  emigrants  every  facility  for 
reaching  it;  and  had  it  no  other  claims  to  patronage,  this  we  deem  ot 
no  little  importance. 

Finally.  The  Society  will  promote  emancipation,  and  will  effect  as 
we  believe  finally,  the  extinction  of  Domestic  Slavery.  It  will  contract 
at  first  the  edges  and  lighten  the  hue,  and  will  wipe  off  at  last  the 
very  vestiges  of  that  broad  black  spot  which  yet  defiles  our  national 
eschutcheon.  Two  obstacles  to  emancipation  at  present  exist.  The 
one  is  in  the  mind  of  the  master,  a  conviction  that  his  slave  when 
emancipated  in  this  country  is  not  a  gainer.  The  other  obstacle  is  of  a 
legal  sort.  The  laws  do  not  permit  emancipation  unless  the  person 
emancipated  be  removed.  If  the  person  liberated  be  removed  to  Africa 

2 


10 

and  placed  in  circumstances  the  most  favorable  to  his  happiness,  both 
the  moral  impediment  and  the  legal  arc  removed:  The  mound  is 
removed  and  the  drain  commences.  Of  those  already  sent  to  Africa 
at  least  one  half  were  emancipated  gratuitously  for  that  purpose,  «ho 
but  for  this  opening  would  have  yet  been  in  a  state  of  slavery.  We 
hesitate  not  to  say  thathundreds  of  masters  are  waiting  to  liberate  their 
slaves  so  soon  as  the  Society  has  it  in  its  power  to  transport  tln'iii  A 
gentleman  whose  name  is  well  known  to  the  public  refused  850,000 
for  his  slaves  and  is  now  training  them  for  Liberia.  In  whatever  light 
therefore  we  contemplate  this  Society  either  in  relation  to  Africa,  to 
the  People  of  color  already  Free,  or  in  relation  to  Domestic  slavery, 
it  merits  our  prayers  and  our  patronage. 

No  doubt  I  trust  now  remains  as  to  the  claims  on  our  sympathy,  of 
Buflfering  humanity  in  the  general,  or  of  bleeding  Africa  in  particular. 
Let  our  contributions  in  some  measure  correspond,  with  the  recollec- 
tions of  the  anniversary  we  celebrate,  with  the  number  and  magnitude 
of  our  personal  and  national  privileges,  and  with  the  importance  of  the 
object  claiming  our  patronage. 

This  is  the  anniversary  of  American  Independence — the  day  on 
which,  was  planted  the  Treeof  Freedom  under  whose  grateful  shade 
we  recline,  whose  abundant  and  wholesome  fruit  we  share — a  day  in 
a  word  which  will  be  held  in  joyful  and  thankful  remembrance  so  long 
AS  Freemen  breathe. 

As  to  mercies;  There  is  no  people  so  highly  favored  as  we,  and 
there  never  has  been.  Babylon  it  is  true  had  mightier  bulwarks,  Egypt 
A  more  fertile  soil;  Greece  had  more  refinement,  Rome  had  more 
power,  Great  Britain  has  more  commerce:  But  the  aggregate  of 
blessing,  religious,  political,  physical,  has  never  been  equalled.  The 
tame  is  true  of  this  City.  Tasting  then  as  we  do  the  enriching  bounties 
of  Heaven,  and  commemorating  our  Liberty  as  the  most  fertile  chan< 
ael  of  blessing,  how  inevitably  must  we  sympathise  with  those  who 
*•  with  their  eyes  only  see"  but "  come  not  nigh"  to  these  mercies. 

A  parting  word  on  the  importance  of  the  Institution  claiming  our 
patronage.  It  is  difi&cult  to  conceive  of  stronger  claims  or  of  claim* 
more  deversified  in  their  Character.  As  a  missionary  enterprise  it  hat 
claims  to  patronage.  The  Colony  at  Liberia  on  the  western  coast  of 
Africa  is  the  most  promising  missionary  station  in  the  world.  It 
affords  full  access  in  every  direction  to  a  continent  of  one  Hundred 
and  Fifty  millions  of  souls  who  before  the  planting  of  this  Colony 
seemed  hopelessly  debarred  from  christian  approach.  On  the  friend 
of  science  this  Society  has  claims.  The  influence  of  the  Colony  will 
soon  be  felt  over  all  western  Africa.  The  votary  of  science  may  travel 
leisurely  under  its  safeguard;  the  blanks  in  our  present  map  of  Afric« 


11 

nay  soon  be  variegated  with  rivers  and  inland  seas  and  Cities.  To  the 
friend  of  Freedom^  a  word.  If  this  Colony  be  properly  supported,  the 
Slare-Trade  will  soon  be  known  only  as  one  of  the  abominaiions  of 
other  times,  and  the  masters  in  our  own  land  will  say  to  their  cap- 
tives "go  forth."  Loj)er  of  oxir  country!  slavery  if  not  remedied  will 
prove  our  ruin.  Already  a  line  broad  and  deep  divides  between  the 
slave  States  and  the  Free.  Animosities  exist  in  almost  every  formj  and 
widely  separated  as  these  sections  of  our  country  arc  in  habits  and 
interests  we  can  hope  for  nothing  better,  until  a  righteous  Providence 
for  our  crime  <jf  withholding  from  others  what  he  has  freely  bestowed 
on  us,  shall  sweep  this  promising  empire  with  the  bes  m  of  des- 
truction- 

My  hearers!  I  do  not  address  those  whose  sympathies  are  absorbed  on 
objects  of  ideal  distress,  on  tragic  exhibitions:  But  I  address  persons 
who  weep  with  those  who  realhi  weep;  and  who  by  abstaining  from 
ihe  dissipations  of  the  day  have  it  in  tlieir  power  to  aid  the  wretched. 


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